Next release plans

[Trammell Hudson]

Now that 0.1.6 is officially out there, we'll need to think about
the roadmap for the next release. I'd like to make the jump to 0.2.0
by adding scripting and some GUI related overhauls.

What else do you all think should be on the roadmap?

--
Trammell

[Al Bogdan]

Features I'd like to see in 0.2.0 would probably include the
following:

Automatically start new video file when 4 Gig size is near. (Wish we
knew if Canon was going to do this, as it seems like a no brainer as a
necessity.) Ideally the camera would do an audio threshhold watch so
that it starts the next file when audio levels dip. That would require
calculating what quiet means, maybe during the last few minutes of
recording, probably in the audio levels display routines. We might
have three steps: First the firmware watches for a minute or so for
something near the lowest audio levels detected. If that isn't hit
then raise the limit by a percentage and try again (meaning we get
less picky). When the 4 Gig limit hits without any quiet just start
the next file automatically.

If the firmware can stop and start a record faster than a person can,
then add a menu item to do this. This would allow doing the above
manually. The key being to minimize as much as possible any lost
video.

The file browser feature will be great since it'll add a lot of
flexibility on a shoot without needing a laptop. Another feature that
might use it would be an instant playback of last 10 (or X) seconds of
video of any selected video file, defaulting to last recorded. That
way if the 4gig is hit in the middle of a sentence I can choose to
quickly play back for the talent what they last said to get them back
on track.

An instant custom white balance would be nice. I'm used to this being
easier on video cameras. I often skipped it when taking stills because
it takes too long and I don't want to miss shots. It's most useful in
mixed lighting situations and can save a lot of post.

I'd like to see the video playback cleaned up in case someone else
wants to review recorded video: audio levels and no screen flashing
with the progress bar, or just remove the audio levels if the flashing
can't be squelched.

While I don't have an HDMI field monitor yet, HDMI out is probably a
high priority for many people. If it looks like you're getting close
on this let me know and I'll do some new crops.

I love the idea of scripting. I always had fun coding parsers and
scripting languages! I can see this could add a lot of coolness. It'll
be fun to see what gets developed and how it gets used.

[MichaelG]

I think an "intervalometer" included in ML would really be helpful.
E.g. for time-lapse work. I know it is more a still photography
feature, but still would be really cool, since no need for external
solutions. It is very similar to bracketing, which is already
possible, so it should be easily doable. Input parameters would be nr-
of-shoots and time-btw-shoots (w/o any camera adjustments in btw/).

It would be important (from my perspective) for such an
"intervalometer", that the LCD is off during the time the long
sequence of pictures is taken (due to battery-life-time).

I am sure that this could also be realized when scripting is possible,
but it might also make a good feature of its own.

MichaelG

[Trammell Hudson]

On Sat, Sep 26, 2009 at 01:15:43PM -0700, MichaelG wrote:
> I think an "intervalometer" included in ML would really be helpful.

The only problem, which you had noted as well, that I see with doing a
software intervalometer is how to ensure that we don't drain the battery
to zero. Right now ML turns off all of the power saving features,
so it would quickly run things down.

There is another bug that shows up if LiveView is turned off.
Sometimes the camera won't come back on after a while and requires
a full reboot. It seems that no powersave + no liveview equals
problems.

> [...]

> I am sure that this could also be realized when scripting is possible,
> but it might also make a good feature of its own.

I'm working on importing Lua now. Pymite is neat in that it is Python,
but the limitations of which bytecodes are supported and the requirement
of a separate compilation step unfortunately make it too cumbersome.
I just wish Perl were easier to cross compile and had few dependencies!

--
Trammell